JCC in Oceanside opens Shoah center

The Children Choir ends the program and as their voices are heard a positive mood comes upon the congregation.

Joseph Abate for The Jewish Star

Holocaust memorial sculpture garden was dedicated tat Oceanside JCC.

Joseph Abate for The Jewish Star

By Barbra Rubin-Perry

It was an evening marking Yom HaShoah, the Friedberg JCC in Oceanside dedicated a new Holocaust Memorial and Remembrance Garden.

After an introduction by Sam Seifman, president of the Jewish Community Council of Oceanside, and JCC Executive Director Jon Center, Jewish War Veterans led the pledge. Several Jewish leaders from the area spot, followed by Ben Meyerson of Temple Avodah who discussed a younger person’s view of the Holocaust. The children’s choir from Avodah, the Oceanside Jewish Center, and Young Israel of Oceanside sang.

Seven candles were lit, six in memory of the six million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust, and one for the Righteous Gentiles who hid Jews or helped Jews escape.

The sculptor who designed the candelabra in the new memorial garden, Lea Weinberg, talked about her ideas for the design.

In his blessing for the State of Israel and those lost, Mark Greenspan, spiritual leader of the Oceanside Jewish Center, said, “We have a commitment to the dead and a responsibility to the living.”